Galatians
3:1: O foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been
evidently set forth, crucified among you?
Galatians 3:13: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the
law, being made a curse for us: for it is
written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.
Galatians 6: 14: But God forbid that I should glory, save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the
world.
Today,
Because the subject of the movie
is the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, many Christian leaders, churches, and
professing Christians praise the movie, attend the movie, and encourage attendance of the
movie. They praise and attend the movie as a
religious, spiritual experience.
I warn all of us against attending.
Whoever attends the movie will
be sinning. The sin will be grievous sin
against our beloved Lord Jesus Christ and His glorious cross. It would not be nearly so wicked to attend a
filthy, X-rated movie.
I will prove that attending
would be sin. The reasons for not attending
will also be the witness you can give to others, why they should not attend.
Blasphemy
To attend the movie, The
Passion of the Christ, would be to make yourself guilty of the blasphemy of the movie. Blasphemy is contemptuous insult of and bold attack
on the holy God and our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, by word and by deed. A sinful, shameful human—a
Blasphemy!
Besides, Christ is now risen
from the dead and become the spiritual Lord of glory at God’s right hand in heaven. It is wicked to try to present Christ “after
the flesh,” that is, in an earthly form. In
II Corinthians 5:16, the Bible says that true Christians do not know, or try to know,
Christ “after the flesh.”
In addition, although Jesus is a
true man, He is also God, and the divine nature of Jesus is never separated from His
manhood. Jesus’ Godhead was not separated
from His manhood even when He was on the cross. Yes,
especially on the cross, His Godhead was not separated from His manhood. Only because the one who suffered on the cross was
the eternal Son of God did His suffering have the worth and value to redeem you and me
from our sins.
A wicked human—a
Blasphemy!
The actor, the director, and the
movie itself break the first and second commandments of the law. About a man, they say, “This is God.” This breaks the first commandment, which forbids
having any other god than the triune, one, true, living, invisible God in heaven. About God, they say, “He has the form of the
Whoever attends the movie approves
the blasphemy, pays for the blasphemy, and participates in the blasphemy.
In Ephesians 5:11, the Bible
commands us, “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather
reprove them.” The Passion of the
Christ is a blasphemous work of darkness. It
produces no fruit for God or for the church. We
reprove it.
The movie is blasphemous also
because it dares to dramatize and portray the once-for-all suffering and death of Jesus
Christ. It dramatizes the awesome crucifixion
of Christ. As God’s great deed in
history, to reveal His grace and justice, to redeem His elect church, and to judge the
wicked world (including the abomination that is
Fact is, the sufferings of Jesus
Christ may not, cannot, and must not be repeated. His
suffering was unique: the bearing of the wrath
of God as the substitute for His church. This
suffering cannot be pictured and dramatized.
Also, His sufferings were
completed when He died. They may not be
repeated. The Bible says, “Christ was
once offered to bear the sins of many” (Heb.
Blasphemy!
Image
Worship
Second, to attend the movie
would be disobedience to the will of God that we learn Jesus Christ and His suffering only
from the Word of God: the Bible and the sound
preaching of the Bible.
The movie is not only, or even
mainly, entertainment. It intends to be, and
is, religious education and evangelism. It has
an educational and evangelistic effect on those who see it.
It teaches the people about the “Jesus” they see on the screen. It even converts people to that “Jesus.” Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders are urging
their followers to see the movie for spiritual benefit.
But the only way God is pleased
to give true knowledge of Christ and His cross is by the preaching and reading of His
Word. This is the teaching of Galatians 3:1,
which I read with you: Christ crucified is
“evidently set forth” to us in the preaching of the gospel and in the
sacraments. Our Reformed confession, the
Heidelberg Catechism, instructs us that it is God’s will to teach us “not by
dumb images, but by the lively preaching of His Word” (Q. 96). This will of God, that His people learn the gospel
of Christ only by the Word of God, is an important element of the second commandment of
the law.
To attend the movie with the
purpose of knowing the suffering of Christ, or knowing the suffering of Christ better,
would be sin against the second commandment.
The only other motive for
attending would be entertainment. Shall we
amuse ourselves of a Wednesday evening with the passion of Christ?
Regardless of the intention of
one who attends, the movie will educate him religiously.
But the education will be false and dangerous.
The movie teaches falsely about
Christ and the cross. It is not based on the
Bible alone. It is based also on
extra-biblical writings, specifically the supposed visions of a Roman Catholic mystic.
The movie teaches falsely also
because it gives the impression that the main suffering of Christ was physical—the
mockery, the beatings, the scourgings, the torture of the cross.
But the real suffering of Christ
was not physical. It was Christ’s
suffering of the wrath and curse of God, which no film can represent or picture. This is the teaching of Galatians 3:13, which I
read with you: God made Christ a curse for us,
for the Old Testament Scripture said, “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a
tree.” Because the real suffering of
Christ was the spiritual agony of hell, the Bible does not emphasize the physical
sufferings of Christ, or describe them in gory detail.
It mentions them. But it will not allow
us to concentrate on them.
Roman
Catholic Heresy
Third, one who might attend
would expose himself (deliberately, now that I have explained the movie to you) to Roman
Catholic teaching about Christ, the cross, and salvation.
The movie is Roman Catholic
propaganda. It will be released to the public
today, February 25. Why? Because today is Ash Wednesday, a Roman Catholic
holy day. The Roman Catholic director, Mr.
Gibson, has described the movie as a “Marian film.” The film features Mary, the mother of Jesus, as
much as it features Jesus. Mary is prominently
present at every step of the way to the cross, as at the cross itself. She is present in the movie as co-mediatrix and
co-redemptrix with Christ. She is a savior
with Jesus. We can only have Jesus as Savior
by means of Mary.
Not so subtly, the movie
promotes the Roman Catholic perversion of the Lord’s Supper,
The very idea that people can be
saved by concentrating on Jesus’ physical sufferings and blood, so that they are
moved emotionally and thus attracted to Jesus, is a Roman Catholic notion. Where in this emotional attraction to a bloody
Jesus is knowledge of the righteousness of God? Where
is heart-felt knowledge of sin? Where is
repentance? Where is faith?
Roman Catholic teaching about
Mary, Jesus, the cross, and salvation is false doctrine.
You would not worship at a Roman
Catholic mass. You would not take instruction
from a Roman Catholic priest. Why would you
expose yourself to Roman Catholic heresy in a movie, which is a very effective form of
instruction?
Learning
the Cross at Church
Young people of the covenant of
God, to know Christ and His cross, go to the Bible, and go to church. There—there only—Christ Himself
teaches the truth about Himself and His sufferings, and He teaches in such a way that you
believe and are saved.
The movie threatens to ruin your
right knowledge of Christ and the cross, perhaps as long as you live. This morning, a Protestant leader said, on a
national network, “When you see this movie, you will never be able to read the Bible
again without the film’s images of the actor and of the crucifixion in your
mind.” The foolish man meant this as a
recommendation of the movie. God forbid that
you—or I—read the Bible or hear the gospel or come before God in prayer with
souls stamped by the vivid images of a movie.
Those who see the movie cry over
the sufferings of Christ. With the ticket to
this show come tissues.
Bathos!
We must not feel sorry for the
suffering Jesus. He told the weeping women not
to cry over Him as He was going to the cross: “Weep
not for me” (Luke
Christ deserved His
suffering. He deserved all His
suffering. He had it all coming. His suffering was His just punishment at the hands
of God for your guilt and mine.
Don’t cry over the
sufferings of Christ, no, not one tear. Cursed
are the damp tissues. Cry over your sins that
brought Him to the cross, not over the cross.
The cross of Christ redeemed us. Therefore, as the Bible says in Galatians 6:14
(which I read with you), we glory in the cross of Christ.
The movie is evil. But it is a powerful medium. Satan will use it to hurt you, to corrupt your pure
knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Do not risk God’s judgment
upon those who involve themselves in the sinfulness of the movie.
Stay away! Rip up your ticket, if you already bought one!
Stay away, for your
Savior’s sake, who loved you and gave Himself for you.
Be separate from the profane
world and the foolish churches!
Give a witness. Give a witness by your behavior in not attending The
Passion of the Christ. Give a witness by
explaining your refusal to attend, when you have the opportunity. Give a witness by inviting people who want to know
about Christ and the cross to the gospel in our Reformed churches.
Say something like this: “Do you want to know Christ and His suffering
for sin? You can learn Him and His cross in
His church, not in a movie theater.” —
DJE
Standard Bearer
* The speech given to the students and faculty of Covenant
Christian High School, Grand Rapids, MI the morning of February 25, 2004. The movie opened to the general public that
evening.
===================
Return to the Proclaiming the
True Passion of Christ page